People think thwarting good country living for the convenience of city life is the way to go. Most of us are addicted to bogus services and necessities, an almost Stockholm syndrome to consumerism. We need to live as close as possible to everything we crave to buy.
I am the opposite. In fact, I chose to raise my own children in the middle of what most people in modern society might see as nowhere, bush Alaska.
The Eskimo and Indian communities in AK might not necessarily think their villages are “nowhere,” but you won’t find a Walmart down the street, those goods have to come in by airplane and in a few days or sometimes weeks, not in a minute car ride down the road.
You can’t just drop everything and decide to jut off to a restaurant of your choice for dinner, although some villages do have their own family style joints, especially with pizza. And, there aren’t any malls.
I am also not writing about larger Alaska villages with over a 1000 people. A lot of times those villages have more modern conveniences. A few even have their own small hospitals, chiropractors and massage, strip malls, and possibly, liquor stores.
There are six common services that most all Alaska villages have: the community store, health clinic, school & gymnasium, municipal or community building and some sort of church.
With the stores, the size, variety of goods and for that matter any goods at all, if you are in a big ass storm, will vary. For churches, if it is not a mission with a working convent, then once and a while a spiritual leader will make their rounds. Sometimes you will get the bible thumpers convincing teens to burn their CDs and dance in a circle to the Lord instead of about the hunt.
The elders take care of most of the cultural spirituality and the gatherings with drumming and dancing do the rest. Based on oral tradition, the elders story-speak runs for long periods of time and the kids usually sit quietly because their culture demands that out of respect. The younger people will sit for hours listening to their elders even if they have lost some of the language in order to actually hear what is said. For a secular teacher, this would be a dream!
A small presence of law enforcement exists in each community with VPSOs (village police safety officers). For big things, like someone steeling the school safe and consequently being apprehended, the big guns, the Alaska State Troopers, fly in. Just a bit of advice to students that bake up this type of school thievery. There really isn’t any way to spend the gobs of money you normally DO NOT have when there is only one store. Someone is bound to catch on.
If you wonder if the fire crew will protect you, then don’t live in the littlest villages because you are most likely part of the brigade. In case of emergencies and the 1940s firetruck won’t start, everyone will be bucket passing to douse the flames.
To all of you cynics who prefer the modern conveniences of cities and suburbs, you may have a few modern points. But, even though you will lack some modern amenities, you will not miss out on the uniqueness of living in the bush .